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In more ways than one, the current coronavirus pandemic has changed employee’s daily lives and conduct. New strategies for adapting to the current situation were installed in a matter of weeks and days, and, amid this uncertainness, employees had to transition to remote work seamlessly while maintaining and successfully delivering on critical deadlines.

The Government faces unprecedented challenges today that require an increased capacity for learning, innovating, and coordinating efforts in a peer-to-peer network of practitioners called “Communities of Practice.” Communities of Practice are groups of people that interact on an ongoing basis to expand their knowledge and expertise in a shared concern or set of problems and who have passion about a topic.

The COVID- 19 pandemic is revealing how complex coordination across government agencies and the private sector is. The public health emergency is triggering an all-hands-on-deck approach and is expanding the definition of “essential work.” Although the Government is familiar with responding to disasters and man-made hazards, the scale of the response needed now is leading to new and unexpected challenges. The Governments and the private sector is reimagining interoperable communications and collaboration between State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial (SLTT), and Federal agencies as the novel coronavirus requires an even more novel approach.

My first day with Arc Aspicio was just a couple of weeks after the World Health Organization declared a pandemic for COVID-19. This crisis forced the Office of Professional Management (OPM) to announce the shift to telework for all eligible employees until further notice, and local and national leaders in the DMV area issued stay at home orders. These safety measures resulted in my first day at the desk in my bedroom.